How to pronounce Aarhus, Odense and other Danish cities

Aarhus is pronounced roughly “OR-hoos”, with the British “or” and no r: the double aa is the Danish å. Odense is “OH-then-seh”, said fast, and Copenhagen in Danish is København, roughly “ker-ben-HOWN”. Tap each city name to hear it, then read why it sounds that way.

How to pronounce Copenhagen

There are two answers, because the city has two names. In English, Copenhagen is “KOH-pen-hay-gen”, and many people say “-hah-gen”; both are fine when you speak English. In Danish the city is called København, and that is the name Danes use, even when they speak English to each other.

Say it in three parts: “ker” (British, without the r, with round lips: that is the ø), a short “ben”, and a stressed “HOWN” at the end. The v melts into the vowel, so -havn sounds like “hown”, not “havn”. The stress is on the last part, which is the opposite of English.

• KøbenhavnCopenhagen
• Jeg bor i København.I live in Copenhagen.
• havnharbour

The name means “merchants’ harbour”: købmand is a merchant and havn a harbour. If the ø is hard, the guide to ø shows how to make it.

How to pronounce Aarhus

Denmark’s second city is Aarhus: “OR-hoos”. The first part is the Danish å, the open, round vowel in British “saw” or “or”. The second part is hus, house, with a long “oo”. Do not say “AAR-hus” with an English a and an r: there is no r sound in the name at all.

Why two a’s? Before 1948, Danish wrote the sound å as aa. Most words changed, but many place names kept the old spelling, and Aarhus went back to it in 2011. Danes read Aarhus and Århus the same way. The guide to å has the sound with more words.

• AarhusAarhus
• Toget til Aarhus kører fra spor fem.The train to Aarhus leaves from track five.

How to pronounce Odense

Odense, the city on Funen, is “OH-then-seh”. The d after the o is the soft Danish d, close to the “th” in English “the”, and it is so light that in fast speech you almost only hear “OHN-seh”. The stress is on the first syllable, and the final e is a short, weak “eh”.

• OdenseOdense
• Hun læser i Odense.She studies in Odense.

Aalborg, Esbjerg and other Danish cities

Most Danish city names follow a few spelling rules. Learn the rules, and you can read names you have never heard.

The “sounds like” column is a rough English guide. The audio is closer, and a Danish friend is closest of all.

The rules behind the names

• aa is å. Aarhus, Aalborg and Aabenraa all start with the round å sound.
• d is often silent or soft. After l, n and r it usually disappears (Roskilde, Kolding). Between vowels it becomes the soft “th” (Odense).
• g is often silent. At the end after r (Aalborg, Esbjerg), and between vowels it can become a “y” (Skagen).
• v after a vowel melts. havn is “hown”, as in København and Frederikshavn.
• Stress moves. Most names are stressed on the first part, but some, like København and Helsingør, are stressed at the end.

The same rules work for ordinary words, so learning the city names is good practice. If you want a real challenge, try rødgrød med fløde.

Questions people ask

How do Danes say Copenhagen?

They say København, roughly “ker-ben-HOWN”, with the stress at the end.

Is it Aarhus or Århus?

Both are read the same way, “OR-hoos”. The city uses Aarhus, the old spelling with aa.

Why do Danish place names look so different from how they sound?

Danish spelling is old, and the pronunciation has changed a lot since it was fixed. Many letters, especially d, g and v, became soft or silent, but the spelling stayed.

Practise the sounds

The names use the same sounds as everyday Danish: the round å, the soft d, the silent g. The topic “Sådan lyder dansk” in the free course goes through these rules one at a time, with words to tap and a small exercise for each rule. The pronunciation guide is a good place to start.